If I had my way, I would try and change this day to Great Friday.

This day is the beginning of something truly wonderful. The day that changed everything. The day that started a battle against death. The day that love would win, as a friend, a man, God in person would sacrifice Himself for a people who wouldn’t even fully understand the implication of such a sacrifice.

Because of this day – we have the power to change our eternal destiny.

I know that this day is reflective, it can be somber. It can feel hard as we try to even imagine the kind of death and price Jesus had to pay for us. For us. For people who would reject Him. Who would live for themselves. Who wouldn’t understand this incredible act of sacrifice and love. But He did it.

And although we see, read and hear – “It’s Friday, but Sunday is coming” – I get it. Sunday is important. But it doesn’t happen without Friday.  We will get to celebrate on Sunday that our Jesus, our God is fully alive – but today, the day we look at the death of Jesus, it’s incredible.  His pain, His Journey, His way of grief – and all because He had YOU and ME in mind. That’s what compelled Him on the cross. That’s what held Him there.

“For the joy set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” Hebrews 12:2

He had a joy – a joy in His heart that His act would find you and me a space in His Kingdom with His Father. That we would experience life as God intended it to be, before sin even existed.

This verse excites and wrecks me all at the same time.

There was an enduring… Jesus endured. He didn’t breeze through it. He even contemplated with the Father about “another way” but surrendered to what he knew he had to do save the world.

The weight of the world was literally on Him – and that gives me hope. Because through His endurance he obtained the prize, he reached his goal. He completed His mission and He saved the world. Today – that day – He finished His mission.  And He shows us how to do it – He becomes the author and finisher of OUR faith. He has gone first – He has made a way for us.

And the challenge for me personally today – is that I look to to Him. That I look, see and perceive His love, that today I celebrate, on the day He literally traded places with me. Where He takes my sin – and He clothes me in white. Perfect. Sealed. Pure. Righteous.

My eternal hope requires me to look up… for the joy that is set before me.

I am so thankful for this GREAT DAY – bought by the perfect friend and father.